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Felt For Wads?

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skyhigh315

Pilgrim
Joined
Nov 18, 2010
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Location
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Hi,

I looked around before I posted this, but I didn't see anything. You guys who make your own wads.... where do you get felt that's thick enough?

Thanks!
 
What Flintfan69 said or an old wool felt hat. I also made some from pieces a wool blanket after it went through the washer and dryer and "felted." In other words it shrank to the point it was somewhat stiff and thick. All work. Just make sure it doesn't contain a synthetic blend.
 
I use the 1/8” thick hard felt from Duro-Felt. If you look down their product list you will see what they recommend for wads. The owner does cater to muzzleloader’s requests when practical. If you don’t have punches, Harbor Freight has some very inexpensive sets (less than a sawbuck) to get you started.
 
I've often wondered about the thickness. Old hats have a stiffness to them but do seem "thin".
 
Not flower pot material, but tried egg cartons with little success. The ones that are some kind of cardboard or paper mache type stuff. Had good, but not great luck with orange juice cartons as over powder or shot wads. The hard felt has worked the best for me so far in rifles, particularly with paper latched bullets.
 
go too your local THRIFT SHOPPE / store and buy an old felt hat for a $1.00, and punch away! some soak the felt wads in vegetable oil too keep the fouling soft. . this was the best kept secret, but every one knows about them, so getting harder to find them in the shop's now.
 
IMG_20170622_174137163_HDR.jpg

Work well and makes for a good summer hat!
 
Thickness of the was you want may vary with the use. In a cap and ball revolver, I like a thinner wad unless I'm shooting a light load. The thin one leaves more room for powder.
 
Dualist 54 has a vid of him using two inch square of heavy paper. I think I make too thick of a wad most of the time. Thin works well.
just be sure to get all wool felt. Any nylon polyester or such makes for a mess.
 
Thanks for the link, Flintfan69. I had not heard of DuroFelt products before. I scrolled down their "Products" page and discovered they also sell one-pound packets of pure mutton tallow (unfortunately out of stock for the time being), and jars of pure lanolin, in addition to all of their wool felt products.

Good to know.

Notchy Bob
 
Another possibility is leather wads, I have been using leather for over thirty years simply because I have a large supply of leather scraps. I use them in the shotguns and for over powder wads in the rifles.
 
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